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1 Jan 2009

Boris Johnson's New Year hangover for the capital

A taste of a coming Cameron government, cheaper for SUV drivers, higher fares for those who use public transport....yes the Tories will fuck over those who reduce CO2 emissions and then laugh.

Boris Johnson's New Year hangover for the capital - "Mayor hits Londoners in the pocket with fares rise"

Tomorrow's above-inflation fare increase in London - which will see the price of a single bus journey on Oyster go up by a massive eleven per cent - has provoked strong criticism today from a cross party group. "At a time of financial crisis the Mayor should be helping Londoners by holding down fares and investing in key public services like transport - he is doing the opposite, hitting ordinary Londoners in the pocket," said MP Jon Cruddas, former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Assembly members Len Duvall, Jenny Jones, Darren Johnson, and Val Shawcross, and Steve Hart (regional secretary of transportunion Unite) in a joint statement.

They called for the fare increase to be reversed and criticised the loss of millions of pounds of income for Transport for London since Boris Johnson became mayor which could have been used to avoid the painful rise. Although Boris Johnson has claimed he is cutting costs to Londoners by freezing the council tax, this will be more than cancelled out for hundreds of thousands of Londoners hit by tomorrow's fare increase.

In their statement the cross-party group said:

"The Mayor of London plans to raise fares by six per cent, with some increasing far more: the price of a single bus journey on Oyster will go up by 11 per cent, to £1.

"Yet at the same time the Mayor has cancelled investment to improve the city's transport system, and is throwing away millions of pounds by cancelling measures like the planned £25-a-day charge on the worst-polluting cars, such as Chelsea Tractors, in central London and taking one of the richest parts of London, Kensington and Chelsea, out of the Congestion Charging Zone.

"At a time of financial crisis the Mayor should be helping Londoners by holding down fares and investing in key public services like transport: he is doing the opposite, hitting ordinary Londoners in the pocket.

ENDSNotes to editors* The Mayor has announced a six per cent fare increase overall, with other fares rising considerably more. A single bus journey on Oyster will rise by eleven per cent from 90p to £1.* The Mayor's New Year fares hike will come into force this Friday (2nd January) with most Londoners affected on the first full working day after the New Year break on Monday 5th January.* Last year Boris Johnson announced that work on future transport links such asextensions to the DLR and the Croydon Tramlink were being shelved.* The cost to London of cancelling the £25 charge on gas guzzlers has cost London up to £50million a year* TfL's own figures show that the removal of the Western Extension of the congestion charge will cost £50-70 million a year in lost revenue